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13 Aug 2012

Renewable Energy to Power Towers

All the mobile towers are being powered by Electricity and diesel generator sets are used as backup power supply when grid power in not available. The number of mobile Base Terminal Stations in the country state-wise is given in tabular form.

Diesel is being used to run the generator sets to power Mobile Base Terminal Stations as standby power supply. Diesel generator sets are installed by the mobile operators owning the Base Terminal Stations (BTS). Necessary controls are being exercised to check pilferage.

To examine the technical feasibility and financial viability of solar wind based power system, pilot project of solar & solar-wind hybrid system to power the Mobile Base Terminal Stations have been carried out.

The TRAI recommendations on Green Energy applications have been approved by government and Department has issued following directives to the licensees/ all ILD service providers to adopt measures to green the Telecom sector setting broad directions & goals:

(i)At least 50% of all rural towers and 20% of the urban towers are to be powered by hybrid power (Renewable Energy Technologies (RET) + Grid Power) by 2015, while 75% of rural towers and 33% of urban towers are to be powered by hybrid power by 2020.

(ii)The Service Providers to ensure that the total power consumption of each BTS will not exceed 500W by the year 2020.

(iii)A phased programme should be put in place by the telecom service providers to have their cell sites, particularly in the rural areas, powered by hybrid renewable sources including wind energy, solar energy, fuel cells or a combination thereof. The eventual goal under this phased programme is to ensure that around 50% of all towers in the rural areas are powered by hybrid renewable sources by the year 2015.

(iv)Based on the details of footprints declared by all service providers, service providers should aim at Carbon Emission reduction targets for the mobile network at 5% by the year 2012-13, 8% by the year 2014-15, 12% by the year 2016-17 and 17% by the year 2018-19.